1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printer for printing a recording paper (web) which is sandwiched in between a thermal recording head and a platen roller and clamped together thereby.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a conventional printer of this type as exemplified in FIG. 1, a thermal head 16 and a platen roller 15 both supported by a head frame 17 are arranged in a printer proper 30 while being pressed together, and a recording paper cassette 11 for housing a recording paper 40 is disposed at an end of the printer proper 30. The mutually pressed state of the thermal recording head 16 and platen roller 15 can be released by causing a push-up member 12a of a release cam 12 integrally mounted on a rotary shaft 14 of the platen roller 15 to push up the head frame 17, and the push-up operation of the release cam 12 can be carried out when the user of the printer rotates a pressing release lever 13 in a direction of El.
When setting the recording paper 40 in the printer, the recording paper 40 is passed through a gap between the thermal recording head 16 now raised by the push-up member 12a of the release cam 12 and the platen roller 15 while keeping the recording paper cassette 11 opened, as shown in FIG. 2, and thereafter the recording paper cassette 11 is closed and the pressing release lever 13 is rotated in a direction of E2 so that as shown in FIG. 1 the recording paper 40 may be clamped by the thermal recording head 16 and platen roller 15, thus completing setting of the recording paper 40.
With the above conventional construction, however, upon setting of the recording paper 40 in the printer, the user of the printer is required to release the mutually pressed state of the thermal recording head 16 and platen roller 15 by operating the pressing release lever 13 and to pass the recording paper 40 through the small gap between the thermal recording head 16 and platen roller 15, raising a problem that the user of the printer is forced to attend to the aforementioned troublesome operation.